VillageBoi:
Saw this film a couple of days ago at the BFI and part of their regular 'African Odysseys' programme.

Wow, what do I even say about it? First let me remind you of the trailer -

Invasion 1897 Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YljETHmfD34

Oga Orikinla, no vex but I was seriously disappointed with this film - remember over a year ago there was that long thread on this film and we talked about so many things - especially the extremely poor VFX and the 'supposed' $18m budget which I straight up called BS. Well the film remained just as bad as the trailer (no they did not ever attempt to rework the crappy VFX).

This is a HUGE story, a huge part of our history and should have been a huge EPIC of a film... sadly it was so underwhelmingly small that a friend I took thought that they were fighting for a little village or patch of land and not a whole Benin Kingdom. When she got home she started reading about the Benin Kingdom and couldn't understand where the $1m budget went. This did not even look like a 100K film... yes it was shot on the 'regular' RED EPIC... sadly not too many of our films look like films when shot on such amazing cameras but end up looking like they were shot on 'video' - post-production people take note.

There was zero crowd. Benin Kingdom soldiers no pass 20 sef. When the Oba's daughter was getting married crowd no pass 30. Seriously how hard is it to go into a village or 2 and get 150-200 people as crowd (shebi na 'epic' you dey make?) This was a joke. Whenever it went into the 1897 'era' you could just not for anything believe you had been transported to that timeline. Costumes were poor, the oyinbo people sef wore kiddy plastic-costume police caps from the 'One Pound' shop and the t-shirts were so modern - there couldn't have been crew-neck elasticated t-shirts in 1897...Duh! Oh and the 'nylon' shorts... why not 'cotton' - Didn't these people watch 'October 1' which is a zillion light years better?
Yes na period drama but the acting was theatrical and generally poor, various things in the edit made it unintentionally comical - this was a serious subject matter nah! Anyway I no go yab the film too much - this was a seriously, seriously missed opportunity. Of course it will pick up the normal "Let's-pity-and-dash-those-black-African-people" some awards from festivals that no one has heard of because the subject matter is a bit controversial.

We really need to learn "Do something well or don't do it at all." Filmmaking is not by force nah; don't do things until you are actually ready - why bite off a thousand times more than what you can chew? And we want Nigerian filmmaking to be taken seriously? We are jokers that have no shame at all - look at a relatively non-filmmaking fellow-African-country like Mauritania diving head first with a 'quality' film straight to an 'Oscar' nomination submission.
Oh well, we're professionals at making the same excuses we've hear a million times over. Bring on the excuses!

Here is the Q&A session which was generally interesting (it's long at just over an hour)
Yes the 450 seat venue was packed - most people left right after the screening.
Invasion 1897 - Q&A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8glXnWvjlXE

Olagospel:
I would really love to watch the movie. It is a good thing that we are taking time to criticise/appreciate such movies. This is supposed to help our film professionals. Nigeria has the potential to be producing Grammy-winning movies.

Olagospel:
I would really love to watch the movie. It is a good thing that we are taking time to criticise/appreciate such movies. This is supposed to help our film professionals. Nigeria has the potential to be producing Grammy-winning movies.

Orikinla:


OP, thank you for your honest analysis of Lancelot Imasuen's epic "Invasion 1897" and it is best coming from someone who is not related to the director.
As one of the publicists of the film, I cannot also be the critic.

As I always say in Nollywood, the best is yet to come. And another Nigerian is already working on his own version of the same history.

caxim04:
thanks @op.

I always ask myself how much it will cost them to organize crowd when there is the need for it.
Go to any higher institution with less than 500k i bet it, you will get at least 200 students to pose
for you as your crowd.

VillageBoi:
Saw this film a couple of days ago at the BFI and part of their regular 'African Odysseys' programme.

Wow, what do I even say about it? First let me remind you of the trailer -

Oga Orikinla, no vex but I was seriously disappointed with this film

Bibol:

What are you saying? Just give a bunch of tired students 1k each and you will see them posing gladly as your extras. Its not that hard

lechiffre:
Don't you guys get tired of criticizing nigerian movies all the time? We have been criticizing nollywood flicks as far back as the 90s and that shiit is really getting old. if you are such great story tellers and effects engineers then why don't you go into business? you could even start an arts and creative club to empower youths on modern art and creativity then outsource them to work in the industry for free no one will say no to free labour, fresh ideas and young minds and who knows it just might revolutionize the movie industry.
Its a whole lot better than sitting down in your house to criticize working people.
Smh

oluwapitson:

constructive criticism is healthy for creative work

Aystarz:


I know of OSCAR award winning actors and movies, but which one be grammy-award winning MOVIES again? Lol.. The grammies is made for musical artiste s not movie actors.

Orikinla:


OP, thank you for your honest analysis of Lancelot Imasuen's epic "Invasion 1897" and it is best coming from someone who is not related to the director.
As one of the publicists of the film, I cannot also be the critic.

As I always say in Nollywood, the best is yet to come. And another Nigerian is already working on his own version of the same history.

lechiffre:
Don't you guys get tired of criticizing nigerian movies all the time? We have been criticizing nollywood flicks as far back as the 90s and that shiit is really getting old. if you are such great story tellers and effects engineers then why don't you go into business? you could even start an arts and creative club to empower youths on modern art and creativity then outsource them to work in the industry for free no one will say no to free labour, fresh ideas and young minds and who knows it just might revolutionize the movie industry.
Its a whole lot better than sitting down in your house to criticize working people.
Smh

Kimmo:
Dear VillageBoi, thank you!

I'd never even heard about the movie until the day I saw it. I was at the cinema with a friend and immediately I saw it on the booklet, I insisted we watch it because the synopsis said it was about Benin and its war history.

I was, to put it mildly, very disappointed. It takes a special kind of movie director to make such a strong tale turn out as blah as this one did.

I notice you compared with October 1 - that movie was nothing short of brilliant.

Bibol:
And to think I was looking forward to seeing the movie

oluwapitson:
am sure.d major problem wasnt that there were no crowd to use in on that location where d film was shot, buh mayb d producer is too stingy to pay more extras to tell a better story.
secondly, the major problem is that when some film maker want to make the so called "big budget" movie, they just go abroad to get a white D.O.P (cinematographer/cameraman) dem no wan know if u sabi d tin, just b oyinbo...lol. all the crew on kunle Afolayan's october1 were all Nigerians, shot by a Nigerian cinematographer; Yinka Edward.
Lastly, even if the crowed no plenty sef, at least in post u can manipulate na, na wao! shebi we dey watch behind d scene for hollywood, they do this all the time , use green screen, anything sha let d final product b gud.

Bibol:

What are you saying? Just give a bunch of tired students 1k each and you will see them posing gladly as your extras. Its not that hard

mrmagoo:



Yawn! a terrible write up made to discredit a "terrible" movie? now that is what I call an irony

I think we have enough of nairalanders who go around bashing nollywood movies and finger pointing at their mistakes just to score cheap points and the sad part is ,they are always unconstructive

So here's my advice for you mr op

- We all know nollywood movies are bad so find a
more creative way to gain attention

- Movie reviews is a career I strongly advice you don't go into cause you are really bad at it

- Rather than sitting in front of your laptop and forming movie critic from an armchair, why don't you go into the movie making business? I'm sure nollywood can use your"knowledge and expertise" or better yet why don't you shoot your own movie to set an example? Like it or not lancelot shot a movie where is your own movie? Until you can shoot a full length movie that is up to taste and can beat this "bad" movie then my dear friend I suggest you sign off
#JustSaying

Sanchez01:
This is normal most times. I saw Dracula Untold sometimes last year and later read some foreign reviews of the movie, only to be disappointed because the movie never really depicted the real life tale of the Impaler. Turdks took offence and threatened all over.

Bibol:

What are you saying? Just give a bunch of tired students 1k each and you will see them posing gladly as your extras. Its not that hard